All Hail Cheer Camp!!!

It’s here! Three days of skills, routines, games, friends and FUN. Safe to say my little cheerleader is beyond excited, as lolling on the sofa for hours on end gets rather tedious and she is certainly ready for an action packed few days.

What hit me this morning was the excitement I felt for my daughter about the upcoming few days. Being that she is going in to her 10th year of cheerleading, cheer camp is a long-standing summer tradition in our home. Still every year there is a buzz of anticipation, that can only be likened to Christmas eve, where you don’t know what is going to happen, but you know its going to be AMAZING!

It’s a nostalgic feeling for me as a parent, and today watching all the little ones run, dance and skip into the doors for their first ever experience of camp, it got me thinking about all the times I have watched my daughters eyes shine with excitement as I took her in and waved her off to the smiling coaches.

The routine has changed as she has gotten older and doesn’t need me to hold her hand and take her in. This morning, as she jumped out of the car without time for me to even say goodbye, I rolled down the window and shouted “have fun” I was replied with a cheeky smile and “always”. Silly me, of course she’s going to have fun, its cheer camp!

Maybe all cheer camps are the same, maybe they’re not, I couldn’t be sure as our experience as a cheer family is limited to the team we love and a couple of others over the years. Our squad has fantastic staff, who are second to none, and we are blessed to have guest coaches with the highest accolades to their names. Our cheerleaders have had amazing opportunities over the years because of camp to perform in front of massive audiences, try new things, and discover untapped talents.

Perhaps the best thing is that everyone is there, no matter if you attend one recreational class a week, or are in 4 of our competition teams, or even if you’ve never done cheer before and just want to have a go! Everyone is there together getting the same training, the same experience. Bonds are formed at cheer camp that will grow throughout the rest of the season, and that’s why it’s the most fun time of the year for a cheerleader, so happy Cheer Camp Week!

*we would love to know what your favourite part of cheer camp is, and why you love it as a parent or an athlete!

Help! It's Summer!

Help! It's summer, and the holidays without cheer reality is setting in for my cheerleader. Quick panic, what do we do??!!!!

OK, breathe. It's OK not to be doing the cheer run for a few weeks, its alright that I feel like I am constantly missing something 5 days of the week, IT'S SUMMER!

We all feel like this don't we? Our beloved squad have just competed their last competition of the season, ICC Summer Jam, and I know that I am biased but WE SMASHED IT! Every team left their heart on the floor, and our little tiny team, well, lets just say the next generation of Panache is EXPLOSIVE!

So now after the high of the last competition of the 18/19 series, we all get a well deserved rest. So what is everyone doing? How are you filling the training time over the next few weeks? (seriously, I need the ideas, comments appreciated! haha) Are your cheerleaders enjoying the rest, or climbing the walls already?!

Over the years we have filled this time with trips to open gyms, trampoline parks, squad meet ups at the park, or swimming, sleepovers, basically anything we can do where the girls can meet up and have fun together.

It is also a good excuse to meet with your cheer mum squad.

We all have friends from cheer that over the years turn into a second family. Those ladies that you automatically sit with at competition, who's children you scream for as loud as you do for your own, who are there when things go wrong and right! I am very, very lucky to have some fabulous cheer mum friends, who are present for me not just at cheer but outside our glitter filled bubble too! One in particular who I cant get through a day without a text, snapchat or phonecall!

So on that note, keep going, lean on your cheer mum squad, don't give up, you will get there! Remember, its only once a year!

Melanie x

The Perfect Pony

Why oh why cant people learn to do a decent pony tail?! This question plagues me at so many cheer competitions. I have to fight the urge to go to parents/coaches and say please can I redo that quiff, why is her bow on backwards, or its upside down! For the love of glitter please clip it!!!!

Ok, I understand that there will be a limited amount of people who are as obsessed with cheerleading hairstyles as I am, and that perfect cheer bow placement is not always top of the list for busy coaches or parents who are at their first cheerleading competition (because lets face it were too busy trying not to have heart failure at the size of the stage our little baby is about to be thrown onto, and wondering if its actually legal to play music this loud in a space filled with so many glittered up faces that were sure 5 different fire regulations must have been breached).

I am a cheer mum of a daughter who is on a team with very high standards, and I decided very early on that I didn’t want to rely on someone else to bun or quiff her hair and was determined to learn myself. I hate feeling helpless or unprepared, and needed to be able to prepare my little princess (demon on comp days before she performs) for her time in the spotlight.

My advice to anyone who is unsure, doesn’t know how, or needs some help with hairstyles is just ask! In my experience if you say can I watch, or will you show me how any cheer mum worth her salt will be more than happy to help (because lets face it, it means one less person in her queue at the next competition!) Practice at home, stick them in front of the tv/ipad for half an hour and figure it out!

I promise you the feeling that when you arrive at competition you wont have to worry about getting someone else to do their hair, not needing to shout at them because you're so worried that their quiff just looks like a bees nest and they just wont damn well stay still, or if their bow is going to fall out on stage (then they stand on it, fall over and break various parts of their anatomy) its totally worth it.